In large construction projects, identification and location of subsurface anomalies are important to the success of the endeavor. Detecting subsurface anomalies currently involves analysis of geotechnical borings and monitoring of piezometers at the site. The data is used to determine the location and depth of subsurface anomalies. To obtain the data, expensive monitoring tools must be installed and often involve long term monitoring. The quantity of data produced by long term monitoring can quickly become overwhelming and threaten the success of the project. The complexity of the data can delay or prevent early recognition of anomalies which can further threaten the project.
Generally, visualization is a means for condensing and communicating vast quantities of data. Visualization provides an invaluable tool to simplify complex data and render it more useful.
Prior art visual representation of subsurface features gives some indication of site conditions. There are several prior art software programs used to visually represent subsurface anomalies. Examples are RES2DINV and RES3DINV available from Saga Geophysics located in Austin, Tex., and Environmental Visualization System (EVS) from C Tech Development Corp. located in Huntington Beach, Calif., Visual Groundwater by RockWare, Inc. located in Golden Colo., and EarthSoft's EQuIS encapsulated with AcrView GIS available from EarthSoft, Inc. located in Pensacola, Fla. Prior art systems suffer from the limitation that they do not allow for evaluation of surface and subsurface site conditions and potential anomalies in an integrated 3-D model that can be viewed from varying angles in 2-D and 3-D perspectives.
A complete evaluation of a construction site requires visualization of above ground features in conjunction with subsurface features. Currently there is not a method to combine above ground features with subsurface anomalies in order to evaluate a construction project or building site.
What is needed is a system that integrates above ground and subsurface features to visualize and identify problem areas. The system should combine a model of an above ground structure and the subsurface features below a structure to the to identify and display a relationship between features such as water leakage, clay distribution, rocks with features such as topography, fill and cut zones, and building features.